


Right Here Next to You

by jadelennox



Category: Jonathan Coulton - Fandom, Jonathan Coulton Songs, Solar System (Anthropomorfic), Space Vehicles
Genre: Angst, Family, Other, Science, Space Flight
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-19
Updated: 2012-12-19
Packaged: 2017-11-21 13:14:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/598171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jadelennox/pseuds/jadelennox
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charon comes to a cozy 19,000 kilometers away and holds Pluto as close as zie can. "I love you, dearheart," zie says, and Pluto wishes it were as easy for zie to say it back. "Everyone looks so small compared to you. I'll always orbit around you."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Right Here Next to You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [melannen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/melannen/gifts).



Sometimes at night, Pluto and Charon orbit together and listen to the melodic pings of _Voyager 1_ as she sends her status back to so-distant Earth.

 _I'm here I'm here I'm here_ , she calls. _I'm tasting particles! They're groovy!_ She's zooming down the magnetic highway, thirteen light-hours away from Pluto and Charon, headed to a coldness even they can't comprehend. Even so, she's not lonely. She's headed to Gliese 445 and feeling fine. 40,000 years is nothing when you have the whole interstellar medium to explore.

Charon says _New Horizons_ is less than three years away and please, baby, stop crying, we'll have company soon. 

It always breaks Pluto a little bit when Charon talks this way. Pluto doesn't need a flying telescope to feel loved; zie wishes Charon understood Charon was the most important moon in Pluto's life. Most important dwarf planet. Most important synchronously orbiting satellite. Whatever. Pluto's not crying because zie's lonely. It's just sometimes zie's worried, is all.

Nobody knows Pluto better than Charon. Even though Pluto has a face Charon's never seen.

* * *

Nix and Hydra make it worse, hooting when they fly by and see Pluto icy and miserable, Charon following behind, offering comforts. "Neil deGrasse Tyson thinks you're an oddball!" Nix calls. Hydra just snickers behind zir geometric albedo.

"Oi!" begins Charon, but Pluto cuts zir off.

"Don't disrespect Dr. Tyson," Pluto says, in zir primmest voice. "He's absolutely correct on the science of the matter. Besides, he called me 'transgressive.' Maybe you'd rather be hegemonic and stodgy, but I take 'transgressive' as a compliment."

"Hegemewhat now?" laughs Nix, and zie bops away, Hydra chortling behind like a freezing lump. Pluto wishes their orbits were bigger, or at least more elliptical. Sure, they're family, but even family should spend some time a little further away occasionally. Pluto sometimes wishes S/2012 (134340) 1 and S/2011 (134340) 1 didn't idolize Nix and Hydra so much. They aren't learning bad habits, per se, but they aren't learning much kindness, either. Pluto can see them now, peeping at the other two from their orbits well within the Hill radius.

"Those _jerks_ ," says Charon. Pluto calms zir down; it won't do to have more animus in the family. "They don't understand," insists Charon. "I wouldn't care, except they take it out on you."

"I don't mind," says Pluto, and zie's only slightly lying. "Besides, you have to admit 'transgressive' is pretty cool."

Charon beams at Pluto, reflecting Sol's distant light. "Dearest," says Charon. "Your kindness inspires me."

* * *

Charon smiles, zir water ice twinkling in the infintesimal light, the barest solar wind rumpling zir to dashing effect. After all these millenia and Pluto's still never seen someone so attractive. Zie couldn't help circling around Charon endlessly.

Pluto has a face that Charon never sees. Zie tries not to feel guilty about it.

 _New Horizons_ ' calls sometimes blueshift toward them. _Wait up, dudes!_ she calls, far more modern in her lingo than good old _Voyager 1_. _I'll be there soon!_ Occasionally she asks them questions. _What's it like out there?_ she calls. _What's the atmospheric makeup of Pluto? What are the masses of dust particles like in the Kuiper belt?_

Charon wants to reply. "If we help her out she'll play with us and keep you company!" zie explains.

Pluto discourages Charon from answering. "Spoilers, dear," is all Pluto calls back to _New Horizons_. Zie has all the company zie needs.

Zie'll enjoy _New Horizons_ ' acquaintance, of course. It'll be nice to meet someone new, and zie'll wish _New Horizons_ all the best as she passes into the Kuiper belt. Just as Pluto is always glad to see Uranus and all twenty-seven of the moons, especially the wee ones, who never make fun of dwarf planets. They wave at each other from eleven astronomical units away, signing their affections across the vacuum of space. Ferdinand is Pluto's favorite of the moons but zie loves all of them. 

Pluto's affectionate in general. Zie loves planets and moons as well, from the pale blue dot of Earth to Jupiter zirself, from huge and oxygenated Ganymede to the darling moonlets of Saturn's rings, who gyre and gimble round the planet's stolid bulk. For all zie wishes Nix and Hydra would go suck on a comet sometimes, zie loves them, too.

It's just so cold out here.

* * *

Charon comes to a cozy 19,000 kilometers away and holds Pluto as close as zie can. "I love you, dearheart," zie says, and Pluto wishes it were as easy for zie to say it back. "Everyone looks so small compared to you. I'll always orbit around you."

"Let's watch TV!" calls S/2011 (134340) 1. 

"Ugh," says S/2012 (134340) 1. "The signal's all fuzzy."

 _New Horizons_ will be investigating the global geology and morphology of Pluto and her beloved Charon. She'll search for hydrocarbons and mapping surface temperatures. She'll take photos and determine bolometric Bond albedos. She'll all but lick their rocky surfaces in her quest to know them completely. It will be the most interesting thing that's happened out here as long as Pluto can remember.

She'll sample from both sides of Pluto.

Pluto has a face that Charon never sees. There's more nitrogen, more carbon monoxide. Charon doesn't know; Charon sees the side of Pluto that's more methane.

 _New Horizons_ is coming.

Nix and Hydra swing back around, ignoring Charon's glares. "Hey," says Nix, nervously. "You know we just like taking the piss, right?"

"We didn't mean to make you cry," whispers Hydra. 

"Pluto!" wails S/2012 (134340), and pushes closer for a hug.

Pluto wipes zir tears and snuggles them all into zir orbit. Charon grumbles but lets Nix and Hydra join the circle. Charon will never admit it but zie thinks Nix and Hydra are all right, if bratty. S/2011 (134340) 1 and S/2012 (134340) 1 squeeze between them, snuffling and begging for comfort. They watch repeats of _NOVA Science Now_ , and S/2011 (134340) 1 even behaves and doesn't beg them to switch to _Top Chef_ instead. 

Sometimes when they're all six in the right mood they play tag, though none of them ever catches the other.

"Do you want us to beat up Neil deGrasse Tyson for you?" offers Nix.

Pluto shushes Nix. Pluto can't explain to the others, but zie adores Neil deGrasse Tyson. Zie loves science, after all, which means zie loves accuracy. But what Pluto feels for Neil deGrasse Tyson is unmeasurably small compared to her feelings for her cockamamie family.

It's just.

Pluto has a face Charon's never seen. Zie listens to _New Horizons_ ' dopplering calls, and tries not to worry.

**Author's Note:**

> > NdT: It's got family. It's got a place to call home. These other objects are icy like Pluto. Small like Pluto. Cockamamie orbits like Pluto. They cross the orbit of Neptune like Pluto. Come on, now. Walks like a duck, talks like — it's a duck!
>> 
>> LH: So leaving it with the other planets would be like leaving it away from its family. Tearing it away from its family.
>> 
>> NdT: I think it's happier there. It's one of the kings of the comets out there.
> 
> Source: Linda Holmes. "[Neil deGrasse Tyson On Why Pluto Is Transgressive And Nobody Hugs The Moon](http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2010/03/neil_degrasse_tyson_on_why_plu.html)." NPR. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
> 
> Story written to a chorus of "I'm your moon" and Vance Gilbert's ["Goodbye Pluto"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lZdqonobwk).
> 
> Interesting notes: Pluto gets closer to Uranus than to Neptune, due to weirdnesses in their respective orbits and their angles relative to the ecliptic. I can't find hard data about how discrete TV signals would be at that distance but my handwavy math says they'd be good enough if your receiver is the size of a dwarf planet. In a couple of years, New Horizons will be sending us pictures from Pluto and Charon, for reals.
> 
> Also, Pluto and Charon do, in fact, have faces the other has never seen.


End file.
